After longtime Greenpoint resident Jenna “JD” Dosch had her first child, she became attuned to a strange phenomenon. The local bars were crawling with squirming, unhappy babies.

“Whether you have a kid or not, it sucks to have babies in bars,” Dosch says. “The kids don’t want to be there, and so it’s not fun for the parents, who have to choke down their drinks while chasing after their screaming kids.”

So Dosch, 33, and her husband, Andy Shaw, 44, set out to create a space where kids could run wild while their parents enjoyed the thrill of a grown-up beverage.

Little People Party has a connected bar for parents’ enjoyment.Lizzy Snaps Sullivan

In September 2016, the couple founded the Little People Party, a drop-in play session that takes place at an indoor soccer facility in Williamsburg. Starting at 10 a.m. every weekday, kids can come to run across the AstroTurf expanse and frolic on play castles and in baby bouncers. At 3 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, a bar connected to the facility opens, and Mom and Dad can order up rosés and microbrews while their kids play. (The cost for children is $20 per day or $125 for a monthly pass; parents purchase beverages separately.)

“I don’t feel guilty about having a beer and chatting with other parents, knowing my kids are also having fun,” says Megan Drye Harper, 32, who regularly takes her two toddlers, ages 4 and 2, to the Little People Party on Friday afternoons. “If I want to go to a bar and socialize [instead], I have to leave my kids at home and pay a sitter $25 an hour.”

The mom of two adds: “I think the reason I need a beer these days is because my kids make me crazy.”

The trend isn’t limited to Brooklyn parents.

Sunnyside Plays in Queens first opened in 2016. This past October, owners Ed Kim and Vanessa Quinn got a tavern license to serve beer and wine at their play space, which charges $7.50 per day for drop-in tots under 1 and $15 for older children. (The price of admission for kids includes two adults.)

“People are often surprised when they see we serve alcohol,” Kim, 48, says of the facility’s snack bar, which carries an impressive selection of brews, such as Ommegang and Flying Dog, alongside juices and nibbles for the kiddies. “One or two people have made negative comments, asking, ‘Aren’t you a play space for kids?’ I answer that we’re a play space for families. We want adults to be able to play too.”